Frame Of Mind
by SolemnSilence170
Summary: Oneshot. Takes place in an alternate reality where the only surroundings are made up of glass. Butters has been alone in this dream-like world his whole life until one day, he meets another boy on the other side of a large glass wall. The strike up a friendship with nothing but a marker. Butters/Kenny AU


**Greeting everyone~ This short oneshot is based loosely off of the short animated story 'Draw With Me'. Reviews and other forms of support are greatly appreciated, but please don't feel like it's an obligation. If this story is truly something you enjoyed, then go for it. If you didn't enjoy it, then feel free to comment why! I always strive to get better at writing :) Without further ado~**

Once there was a boy. He had no known family. No friends. No home, no name, and not even a voice. All he had was a set of markers.

In this place he lived in, there was only one object. Glass. He walked on glass, he looked up and around at glass, and he ate glass. It was sharp and not entirely pleasant, and yet, it somehow managed to sustain him. Sometimes the glass would be clear and sometimes it would come in the form of mirrors and he could see his reflection. The boy didn't particularly like his reflection; his hair stuck up too straight, and his upturned nose used to upset him a little. But his reflection was everywhere and with time, he had accepted it as a part of who he was.

He had no goal in life- or, rather, he couldn't think of one. His existence was painfully lonely and there was nothing to do but walk and consume shards of glass. At this time, he was walking alongside a rather large sheet of glass that was see-through. He had been walking next to it for a very long period of time; the darkness had fallen and risen a little more than twenty times on his journey. Usually his interest would have switched by now, but something in him told him that there was something waiting at the end of this wall. He continued his walk, stepping on glass shards all the way. His body had a natural resistance to cuts by the glass, so he had no wounds to speak of. Sometimes he liked to sit and crush the shards until they looked like little clear specs of sand. Other times, he would take his marker and scribble drawings on whichever surfaces he fancied. He loved to draw, but since he only knew of the glass and of his own appearance, most of the things he drew were magical beings he had made up himself. He would scribble out the bodies of humanoids, four-legged creatures, and beings with wings. But for today, he was mostly focused on his walk.

His feet quietly padded along the cool surface of the glass, when suddenly he felt a bizarre presence. He froze in wonder. Here in this empty abyss, it immediately felt like he wasn't alone. He swiftly looked around, studying and surveying his surroundings with a complete meticulousness. He squinted in concentration. Nothing. He sighed and was ready to give up, when he spotted a little dot on the horizon.

A sudden thrill of both excitement and fear struck him and he crouched down to watch. Yes, right beyond a tall pile of glass was a little figure on the other side of the wall. It was becoming bigger and bigger, and the boy suddenly became shy. What if this person; if it truly was a person, wasn't interested in him at all? This opportunity to meet someone and befriend them would slip away into nothingness. But the fact that there was another form of life here brought the boy a fierce hope. Maybe things didn't have to be this way any more.

The boy watched and waited patiently until the figure grew closer. Eventually, he could make out the general physical appearance. The figure was another boy like him, and also like him he had blonde hair. But his was longer and didn't stick straight up. He was pale and maybe a little taller than the other boy. Eventually, the stranger saw him and ran towards him. It was obvious that he wasn't expecting to find another person out here either and he stopped in front of the boy in awe. The stranger's eyes were an icy blue that reminded the boy of the glass around them. The stranger grinned at him and waved. Shyly, the boy waved back, startled by his friendliness. The stranger gestured for the boy to back away and then tried to hit the wall. But the glass was thick and he failed in breaking it.

The boy suddenly got an idea and took one of his black markers. He threw it high into the air and it just barely sailed over the wall. The stranger caught it with ease and smiled at him. The boy uncapped the lid and wrote, "Can you write?"

The stranger wrote back in sloppier handwriting. "Naturally. What are you doing here?"

The boy smiled happily and laughed silently at the stranger's backwards 'n's. "I want to reach the end. I've been walking ←- for a long time."

"I could walk with you. Then we could reach the end together."

The boy had a giddy excitement in his stomach. "Okay! :)"

The stranger scribbled again. "What should I call you?"

The boy gave him a confused look.

"You know. A name to call you. I call myself Kenny."

Oh. The boy hadn't thought about naming himself. He hastily looked back at a mirror. What was his label for all of who he was?

Finally, he wrote. "I don't really call myself anything. How do I come up with a name?"

'Kenny' smiled. "Well. Is there a name you like? You could start there."

A name he liked? Well, he did have a fancy way of writing upper-case 'L's. "I'd like for my name to start with an L."

Kenny quirked his eyebrow in humor. "L names? Uh, let's see. There's Leroy, Lysander, Leo-"

The boy cut him off with his own writing. "Leo! I like that one. I'll be Leo."

Kenny smirked. "I like it. It's cute."

The boy, now called 'Leo', pouted at his comment and Kenny mutedly chuckled.

"So, _Leo_ , can you draw?"

Leo nodded vigorously and swiftly drew a cute little drawing of himself. Kenny grinned and drew an edgy version of him and proclaimed, "Mine is better! :D"

"Hardly!"

They spent a good portion of time drawing and silently laughing at what the other made before Leo asked him a question. "Have you met anyone else before?"

Kenny looked at him in the eye before responding. "No. Just you. Have you seen anyone?"

"No." He hesitated. "Do you think it's just us?"

Kenny seemed a lot more serious now. "Maybe. Hey, if we keep walking ←- we might find something. This wall might end and we could be face to face."

That was what Leo thought. "But what if the wall separates into different directions? What would we do then?"

"Then we just turn back and head the other way!" Kenny scribbled. "Hopefully it won't come to that."

"Yeah."

"Well then! Let's go :D" Kenny stood up and waited for Leo to stand to before they walked. Sometimes when a thought would strike one of them, they'd stop and tap on the glass to get the other's attention before scribbling something. Kenny had a way of making Leo feel weightless and he was glad that he finally had a companion with him in this abyss.

But with his newfound friend, Leo also discovered that he was filled with fear of the unknown possibilities. It was possible that they might get separated somewhere along the way. Very possible, in fact. He feared that something he said might drive Kenny away. He wasn't ready to lose something he had been hoping for for so long.

He and Kenny continued wandering along on their quest. At one point, Leo encountered a large blockade of glass that he had to climb over. It was difficult, and right before he reached the last leg of the descent, he slipped and fell squarely on his behind. He looked over at Kenny and made a face when he saw that he was laughing. Leo stood up abruptly and glared at him. Kenny was tapping the wall excitedly and was drawing a doodle of some sort. Leo immediately recognized it as a mock drawing of him falling on his butt.

"I hate you." He wrote in response, but his smile told Kenny that he was lying. They shared a knowing grin, regrouped, and continued their trek. They walked and walked until Leo's feet were starting to hurt and the darkness was returning again. He tapped on the wall and asked Kenny if he'd like to stop for the night. He promptly agreed and together they laid down on the glass floor. But Leo couldn't sleep. He and Kenny just spent a countless amount of time looking through the glass at each other. Finally Leo got up the nerve to put his hand on the glass.

"It's cold." He wrote.

Kenny placed his hand where Leo's was from the opposite side of the wall. "Yeah :("

"I hope we can find the end."

"Me too." Kenny replied. He seemed to hesitate for a brief moment. "I like you, Leo."

Leo was beyond flattered. "I like you too, Kenny."

He rested his forehead on the wall and tried to keep in his excitement when Kenny did the same. "It won't be like this forever."

"I know."

The darkness finally came in full force and they were just able to scrawl out quick 'good nights' before they couldn't see each other anymore. Leo waited for sleep to take him.

When the darkness finally lifted, Kenny was the one that woke him. He tapped and knocked as loudly as he could until finally Leo stirred from his deep sleep. They ate some glass together, talked about how well they slept, and touched their hands to the glass again before continuing their adventure down the wall.

They hadn't been walking for very long when finally Leo could make out something different on the horizon. He tapped on the glass and furiously wrote, "Do you see all that?"

They were little specs of color at this point. Blues and greens and pinks and purples. Most of these colors were entirely new to both of them.

"What is that?!" Kenny wrote back.

"I have no idea." Was Leo's response.

Their pace quickened to a distracted jog until finally they encountered new objects. At Leo's feet was a brown stuffed creature with black button eyes and four stiff limbs. It looked cute and homely. He held it up and studied it before showing it to Kenny. On Kenny's side, there was a box of something. The box was yellow and green and inside were little colored markers. Except they weren't markers. They were waxy and weren't only black and there was a thin layer of paper down the middle of each little wax marker. Kenny held up a purple wax marker and tried it out on the glass wall. It wasn't very legible.

Kenny picked up the marker Leo had originally thrown to him and stated, "This is a crap marker. Why does this even exist in the first place? D:"

Leo laughed silently and asked, "Why are these things here? What else is here?!"

"I don't know."

They walked together, scouting around and picking up random objects for examination. Butters had found a little box that had a lever, and when you cranked the lever it would make an actual musical noise and a terrifying painted creature would pop out to scare you. It upset him greatly, and Kenny raised his fists threateningly at the object in retaliation. Kenny meanwhile, had discovered a little red object that was some sort of contraption that could roll on the floor and emit a honking noise. It was very detailed and it could open up on two sides. They continued on like that for a while, picking up strange objects and inspecting them with the other watching carefully. It was as equally fun as it was scary.

But Leo noticed that the farther they walked, the more there surroundings changed. It was subtle, but the glass was slowly transitioning from its normal clear to a pale see-through pinkish hue. He wasn't sure what to make of that. But even more noticeable, was the towering figure in the far distance.

He tapped on the glass. "Kenny, what is that?"

It stood high and tall, whatever it was. And it certainly wasn't made out of glass.

"Whoa. I don't have a clue." He scribbled back. They immediately broke into a full-out run this time, and as the figure became clearer and clearer the most determination they felt. Pretty soon, the outline had formed. It was some sort of structure that was made out of something darker than glass. And it seemed to stretch straight to the top, like a bold vertical line. But before they got to it, Leo noticed something else.

The wall had come to an end. It just, stopped being a sheet in between Kenny and Leo. Leo pointed at the separation and he and Kenny exchanged happy smiles and ran faster. Finally they reached the breach.

Before he could process that nothing stood between him and Kenny, he was engulfed in a huge hug. He was shocked by this new sensation, but embraced Kenny a moment later. Human contact really was something. They eventually parted and simply looked at each other. They had no way of speaking now though. Leo tried his voice, but couldn't make a sound. Kenny did the same and tried to mouth out some words. Both of them were silent.

Enraged, Leo attempted a wordless scream, trying with all of his might to force a chord of sound out of his throat. But he couldn't. A tear quietly slid down his cheek and in a display of emotion, he sat down and held his face. He could feel Kenny sit down beside him and wrap his arms around him. Then Kenny kissed his cheek where the tear had fallen.

Kenny whispered. It was extremely soft and easily unheard, but Leo heard it. "Lee…"

Leo's quickly snapped around to look at him in shock. Kenny seemed equally, if not more so, surprised. They both broke into excited grins before Kenny took Leo's face in his hands. And he did something unexpected. He brought his lips to Leo's and they kissed. It was thrilling, _enchanting_ even, and as they both pulled away they were captivated.

"I love you." Leo said quietly. This time, they both just smiled.

"I love you too." Kenny replied. He pulled himself up off the ground and offered his hand to Leo's. "Come on. Let's go."

They walked together through the field of glass and assorted objects, hand in hand. Eventually, they made their way to the black line that went all the way up to the top. It was a spike or pire of some sort made out of shiny black glass. There was an opening. Inside, Leo and Kenny found a grand winding staircase. Whatever was at the top was something they both needed to witness. Together. And so, they made their ascent.

Countless amounts of time passed, and Leo was curled up on his favorite armchair with a warm blanket and their cat on his lap as Kenny read the morning newspaper with a cup of black coffee. Mornings like these were Leo's favorite. He had no place he needed to be, no errands to attend to, and better yet, Kenny had the day off today. But something was on his mind.

"Hey Ken?" He started, pulling Kenny's attention away from the little printed lettering.

"Yeah babe?"

"I was just thinking about how it was like… Before. Tell me again how you felt."

Kenny folded up his paper and looked out their bay window. "Well, it was a hard time for both of us. I didn't really know how I could stand being away from you any longer, honestly. It felt like I was going crazy. But you were there the whole time, just behind that goddamn screen, and I knew someday… That someday we'd be together."

Leo smiled and reached a hand over to squeeze Kenny's in a gesture of love. "And now we are."

Kenny grinned. "And now we are."

 **So. That's it :) I hope you all enjoyed that. Just a little metaphorical story I couldn't get my mind off of. Plus, oneshots are useful for getting rid of writer's block~ So, thank you for reading this. I know it was kind of short and a lot more innocent than what I usually write, but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless. Again, this was inspired by the old YouTube video 'Draw With Me'. I really liked that take on long-distance relationships and wanted to create my own version of it. Bye for now~**


End file.
